Mass Effect: Contingency
by KnightOfTheGrey
Summary: Tossed into the deep end following a freak shuttle accident at the Academy and some highly classified information, E. Shepard scrambles to keep up with events. From Akuze through the Normandy and beyond, featuring violence, strong language, terrorists, and bad attitudes as the wrong people for the job set out to save the galaxy.


Opening Notes (or: What is Happening Here and Why)

I've been trying to write this on and off for some time, but it's happening now. _Contingency_ is based on a file of things I wish I could have said in the Mass Effect games, fused with an attempt to flesh out and add depth to the story as a whole. I am playing fast and loose with canonical details here; most of the things you are expecting to happen will happen, but the manner in which they happen and why they happen are unexplored territory. Shepard here is female and an Infiltrator; her background loosely follows Spacer/Sole Survivor.

Special thanks to BioWare, for making a story and setting with holes in it evocative enough to make me want to jump in and fill them; to John Ringo and John G. Hemry, for making me wonder if there's a middle ground between the dry but accurate and the exciting but wildly inauthentic in military science fiction; and to Raven Studios (there's a search bar to your upper right), whose excellent series _Cause And Effect_ (and sequels) took a wild clutter of ideas floating around in my head and showed me what I could do with it.

Unto the breach.

* * *

Prologue

Systems Alliance Naval Academy

Arcturus Station

April 10, 2172 CE

* * *

The aide in the waiting area waved Shepard into the office the moment she got there. One simple, utilitarian chair sat before the conference table, on the other side sat her inquisition in full dress. Admiral Ross, Commandant of the Academy, looking as old as she'd ever seen him, close-cropped grey hair disheveled. An Operations Chief, probably a technical consultant, slightly rotund and glaring off at nothing. And in the middle a hard-faced woman with a very thin mouth, a Captain, the investigating officer. She had a tremendously sharp stare, with which she fixed Shepard the instant the door opened.

"Cadet. Captain Anne Mallory." She gestured to the Chief. "Operations Chief Parker, assisting with the investigation." And she nodded to the chair, in which Shepard sat, straight-backed, shifting her datapad to her lap.

"This is a preliminary hearing. No charges have been brought, we are here to determine the facts surrounding the accident of April 7." She passed a datapad across the desk, which Shepard picked up. "Read and sign, please." Shepard put her signature to the oath wordlessly. The whole truth, nothing but the truth. Somewere in the back of her mind she wondered who had used it in its modern form first.

Mallory steepled her fingers in front of her and kept up her stare for a moment longer. Shepard stared back. "You were assigned to the flight deck as part of the operational exercise of April 7?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"The team under your supervision serviced the shuttle designated Delta-Seven for flight?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"You found no problems that would require grounding the shuttle?"

"No significant problems, ma'am."

Mallory's gaze sharpened further. If that were possible. "Clarify, cadet." The chief seemed to have noticed that there was an interview happening next to him.

"My crew detected an intermittent fault in the engine coolant systems of the shuttle. I reported the fault to Lieutenant Greene, who was supervising the exercise, and since we were unable to reproduce the problem he directed us to certify the shuttle for flight."

"Do you agree with the Lieutenant, cadet?" Conniving bitch. Shepard's hand clenched on the datapad, and she schooled her face to stillness before continuing.

"It is not my job to second-guess orders from superior officers, ma'am."

The corner of Mallory's mouth twitched a bit. An obvious trap, perhaps, but it had been avoided. "Let me rephrase. If you had been in the Lieutenant's place would you have certified the shuttle for flight?"

"Yes, ma'am."

The captain shifted, sitting up a bit straighter, a hint of frown entering her voice. "Yes? You are aware, cadet, that shuttle Delta-Seven detonated thirty-five minutes after leaving Acturus, killing the pilot and four cadets?"

"I know now, ma'am. On the morning of the 7th neither I nor the Lieutenant had any indication that the error was any more than a diagnostic glitch." It was an effort, but Shepard held Mallory's glare without flinching. "The Lieutenant chose to follow proper procedure rather than scrub a launch because a cadet had a hunch, ma'am."

"Yet you moved to operational control to observe the flight telemetry."

Shepard shrugged. "I had a hunch, ma'am."

"No more than that?"

"No."

Mallory sighed, retrieving another datapad from below the table. "Thank you, cadet. Dismissed."

Shepard stood, but didn't move towards the door.

"Was there something else, cadet?" The two officers and the petty officer combined fire, their stares enough to drive most cadets from the room screaming.

Shepard swallowed, stepped forward, and placed the datapad she carried on the table. "My analysis of the accident, ma'am. I didn't have access to the shuttle's flight recorder so it's been pieced together from the station's sensor array and the telemetry logs."

Ross nodded through his puzzlement as the chief took the datapad. "Thank you, cadet."

Shepard left.

* * *

"Well?"

Chief Parker looked up from the datapad. "She's come to basically the same conclusions we did, which has me startled given the lack of information." He sounded… _impressed_ was probably the right word.

"Your thoughts, Admiral?"

Ross blinked and turned. "Shepard is…something of an oddity, Captain. You're familiar with her records?"

Mallory chuckled. "The evaluations caught me by surprise. 'Subtle' and 'patient' aren't usually things I find in cadets' files." She sighed. "I'm prepared to recommend to the inquiry that the incident be declared an accident and no disciplinary action taken, unless Parker turns up anything surprising in the interim."

Ross stood, wordlessly, walking over to the window. Hands clasped tightly behind his back he stared out over Arcturus. Behind him Mallory let out a noise of surprise as she glanced back over a datapad.

"Admiral, there's a Cadet A. Shepard on the passenger list for Delta-Seven." She looked up. "Any relation?"

Ross' hands tightened. "Sister. A year older."

The captain stared down at the pads, calm replaced with a poleaxed expression. "I had no indication…the psych files…"

"Have you run across Captain Hannah Shepard during your service, Mallory?"

Her face cleared for a moment. "That…explains rather more than I'd like, sir."

The admiral didn't turn around. "Thank you, Captain. If you need anything further do not hesitate to ask."

Mallory and Parker left the room with brief murmurs of acknowledgement, leaving Admiral Ross staring out into space.


End file.
